


The Promise Of Another Year

by bmouse



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-07
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmouse/pseuds/bmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, remember today? Hasn’t it been a year...” he said it all casual-like, making a big show of stretching his arms over his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Promise Of Another Year

**Author's Note:**

> Originally started writing this for KagaKuro Week 2015 for the theme of 'promise' but it didn't quite come together for the deadline so here it is now. Happy self-indulgent nonsense abounds, have fun spotting all the side pairings.

They’d just finished brushing their teeth when he remembered what day it was.

“Hey, remember today? Hasn’t it been a year...” he said it all casual-like, making a big show of stretching his arms over his head.

Kuroko shot him the sort of look that said ‘please leave the subtlety to the professionals’. Then his eyes followed the curve his biceps, like _he_ couldn’t help himself. _Heh._

“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten.” 

Kuroko turned back towards the mirror as if he hadn’t been caught doing anything sneaky at all. He was wielding a wet comb with ruthless grace, taming that crazy bedhead into smooth feathered bangs. Kagami couldn’t resist and sank his big meatslab hand into the whole thing the second he finished, curving it around the other boy’s skull, enjoying the texture of the slightly damp hair on top and the soft downy bits underneath. Then he twisted aside, barely dodging a finger jab to the ribs. _Pfff, still worth it._ It had been half-speed anyway, which meant that Kuroko didn’t really mind. 

They still had school, which kind of seemed like a waste, on a day like this of all days. Everything was pretty much the same. Now they just went to the second years’ hallway, though it meant that they passed all the sempai’s classrooms on their way to lunch. Thank fuck Seirin was such a new team, nobody was graduating yet.

Instead Mitobe and Koganei were playing frisbee with the dog on the still-empty soccer field. Izuki was chuckling to himself over his phone - probably texting that Rakuzan leopard bastard who actually liked his lame jokes. Coach was turning heads with her new undercut and handing out business cards for the Captain’s family hair salon when people got in her way to gush about how ‘modern’ and ‘mature' she was. Figured that Coach would probably get more confessions than the lot of them put together. 

Not that he cared. He’d only gotten one confession in his life and that was fine by him. First, and last. It had been kind of a quiet, mutual thing - like an ember that became a flame with two shared puffs of breath, and it was the only one he wanted.

Hey, he was allowed to get mushy - it was exactly a year since the day he met Kuroko and pink petals were wafting around them, shedding slowly from the trees on the school grounds. ‘Big dumb American’ jokes aside, he was genetically 100% Japanese so seeing the sakura bloom and getting way sentimental was, like, traditional. Right? 

And speaking of nostalgia; tomorrow they’d help man the table for the team at the club activities fair and they’d lay out the Cup trophy and the championship pennant and probably get mobbed. And then they’d get new members and the Captain would bitch but actually be super happy and the new guys would probably follow Furihata, Fukuda and Kawahara around and call them ‘sempai’ and then he would bust a rib laughing. Maybe Kuroko would even join in. He’d been smiling more and more lately but it was still rare to get actual unguarded _sounds_ out of him. 

But that was tomorrow, tonight… Maybe tonight _he_ could get a few sounds out of the guy, starting with that self-satisfied sighing noise he made when he backed Kagami into a wall to be kissed. Kagami gave himself the mental equivalent of a whack with a rolled up newspaper. As if _that_ line of thought was gonna do him any good with half the day left. 

He looked over to where the subject of said impure lunchtime thoughts was sleeping with one of his books over his head, ruffling the pages once in a while with one of his soft purring snores. _Alex_ snored louder than Kuroko, honestly. Not that he’d tell. It was Kagami’s own damn fault - he’d made him finish his bento and the food coma knocked him out, but Coach was only going to step up their training, so Kuroko had better get used to eating like a normal person. 

Not like any of the miracle bastards were going to be sitting on their thumbs. Beating them the first time around had only made them slightly less dysfunctional, which probably made their teams stronger in the long run, god help them all this season. Kagami chewed decisively through the rest of his remaining grilled squid and grinned. Good thing he was the kind of man who liked a challenge. Of course they were going to fight like mad and defend the title of ‘#1’ but none of it felt quite as _desperate_ this year. No one was playing for ‘life or death’, ‘friend or enemy.’ All that shit had gotten sorted, there was only the pure, simple game left.

“Was lunch that good? Kagami-kun is smiling very widely...” Kuroko mumbled at him when he nudged him awake. He’d explain it later, he’d let him sleep too long as it was and they were almost late for class.

In Japanese Lit he tried not to tap his foot or stare at the clock, but whenever his eyes managed to stop following the minute hand they got stuck on the back of Kuroko’s soft, pale neck. Whoever had made the seating chart where his partner got the desk in front of him was either a sadist or an angel, Kagami couldn’t decide which. But hey, only three more hours until school ended.

Of course the surest way to make the universe want to mess with him was to make a plan.

Funny, Kawada-sensei had been scared shitless of him the first day he’d showed up in her classroom but now the English teacher cornered him easily and asked him to stay a little after school. Something about him maybe doing ‘colloquial English’ demos for her first years next week. Kagami suspected that his English was maybe a little _too_ fucking ‘colloquial’ for what they wanted but extra credit was extra credit. Still, he almost said ‘No’ on principle because it was their day dammit, and so what if he wanted to walk home together. 

“Hey, they want me to do this thing…” He gave Kuroko a hangdog, regretful look and Kuroko raised him an amused one. 

“It’s allright, I’ll wait for you at home.” Kagami had given him his spare key a while ago.

Kissing by the school gates during the homeward rush was, unfortunately, right out, but he let their shoulders knock together and Kuroko smoothly snuck in a squeeze of his hand before he walked off to the bike rack to untie the dog. 

As soon as he was done playing ‘good student’ Kagami dashed out the door, his Jordans leaving black scuff marks on the empty hallways. It was weird though, lately he could almost talk the talk. All the sensei had said that even his stumbling _keigo_ had gotten better recently, though they didn’t have to look so freaking surprised. Chalk it up to a year of good influence.

He kept running the whole way home, not so much because he was in a crazy hurry but because it felt good to run. Like there was no pressure to it, no finish line. He was racing towards something already in reach, something that was already in his hand. 

Though OK maybe he did put on an extra burst of speed as soon as he turned onto his street and maybe he overdid it on the door. The loud bang of it being tackled open echoed through the living room. He stood there and took it all in; Kuroko’s coat on the coatrack and Kuroko’s Asics in the shoe cupboard. Kuroko’s dog’s paws twitching under the coffee table where it napped. Hell, with the amount of times Kagami fed and walked the thing it was probably like 15% _his_ dog too.

As he stalked through the apartment, sweat dripping off the ends of his hair, his thoughts stayed warm and scattered. _I should really take a shower. Maybe get dinner started first?_ It was so quiet, maybe after the long first day of classes Kuroko had fallen asleep. Which was OK, really. So what if they hadn’t done anything crazy ‘special.’ It had been a good day already. They’d have another one like it tomorrow.

Still he wanted to see Kuroko, even if he was asleep. He wanted… something. Maybe to ruffle his hair again or run a hand along his back. Just one of those little touches, to tide himself over. Forget playing it cool, tomorrow morning he'd just tackle Kuroko first thing and kiss him, just let himself say whatever embarrassing things he could think of: "Thank you for this whole year”, “It’s the best one I’ve had so far.” , “Please stay for the next one, and the one after that.” 

He took a couple of careful, barefoot steps forward and just as he gave the bedroom door a light push he heard “Oh. There you are, Kagami-kun. And here I am, as promised.” 

And because he’d ended up with a guy who was somehow relentless, kind, and _wicked_ all at once he got to stand there dumbstruck and panting, sucking in air through his teeth at the sight.

His boy. His shadow. Waiting for him, wearing only his worn black sweatbands and the soft bedroom light.

~


End file.
